Justin Katz

Free Trade Is a Two-Way Street

By Justin Katz | April 21, 2008 |

Trade isn’t a topic on which I can express all of the relevant arguments, but this suggestion from University of Maryland School of Business Professor Peter Morici sounds reasonable to me: China is the biggest problem. It subsidizes foreign purchases of its currency, the yuan, more than $460 billion a year, making Chinese products artificially…

High Rollers on the Hill

By Justin Katz | April 21, 2008 |

I get that winning clients sometimes requires wooing them — especially in the glamor-obsessed entertainment industry. As a government activity, however, this makes me very uncomfortable: When Steven Feinberg entertains people in the television and moviemaking industry, he entertains them in style. He sprang for the Ravioli al Filetto at Venda’s Café, the rib-eye special…

Class Warfare Is a Highway, and I Wanna Ride It

By Justin Katz | April 21, 2008 |

Things aren’t equal on the highway. Some folks happen to pull into pockets of traffic that engulf them for an entire commute, while some ease into the lull just five minutes earlier. Some folks have faster cars; some folks have bigger, more-imposing cars. Some have drivers; some have GPS; some have government plates. Some are…

A Dilbert Delay

By Justin Katz | April 19, 2008 |

It’s too bad today’s Dilbert cartoon wasn’t published in closer proximity to the percentage of a percentage debate here on Anchor Rising. Although, the stink eye is much less effective in the comment sections than in a boardroom.

Reaching for the Ring of Diversity

By Justin Katz | April 19, 2008 |

It appears that Rhode Island has made the national diversity news feed. Here’s Roger Clegg: Portuguese business owners in Rhode Island are upset with a proposed state law that would strip them of their official “minority” status — and the contracting set-asides that go with it. There are no heroes in this story, however, which…

A New Era of Nuclear Fear

By Justin Katz | April 19, 2008 |

Charles Krauthammer broached a chilling subject yesterday: The era of nonproliferation is over. During the first half-century of the nuclear age, safety lay in restricting the weaponry to major powers and keeping it out of the hands of rogue states. This strategy was inevitability going to break down. The inevitable has arrived. … The “international…

Caught by the Art

By Justin Katz | April 18, 2008 |

Jay Nordlinger brought up another familiar name in his review of a joint concert of classical violinist Hilary Hahn and folkish singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, to whose album The Animal Years a friend and coworker directed my attention a couple of years ago. Jay had a reaction similar to mine to the song “Thin Blue Flame,”…

Stop the Bleeding

By Justin Katz | April 18, 2008 |

Almost as if it’s a coordinated emphasis on ignorance, the criticisms of my op-ed have done two things: 1) doggedly held to 2005 data, and 2) insisted that I haven’t proven causation. The argument is that people aren’t leaving, and there could be other explanations for their flight. Well, contradictions happen. The reality is that…

Silencing the Iconic

By Justin Katz | April 18, 2008 |

I see that the following news item on the legendary Brigitte Bardot caught Jay Nordlinger’s eye, as well: The headline was arresting: “Brigitte Bardot on trial for Muslim slur.” She had incited “racial hatred.” Oh my goodness, how? What did she say? I prepared for the worst. BB had said, “I am fed up with…

Frankly Disappointing

By Justin Katz | April 18, 2008 |

It would seem that a confession of my naivété is in order, because I was actually surprised at the response to my recent op-ed on Rhode Island taxpayer flight that the Poverty Institute’s Ellen Frank offered as a letter to the editor. Either she is being deliberately deceptive, or she did not manage to understand…